In the round-up: Sebastian Vettel say he isn’t happy with his Russian Grand Prix performance after finishing a lapped 13th for Ferrari.
What they say
Vettel was asked whether he felt much benefit from Ferrari’s update at the Russian Grand Prix:
Well, I mean, obviously my race was a bit compromised. I’m not happy with today’s performance. So maybe I’m not the best to judge in the race.
On Friday I think the parts were doing what we expected. It’s a very small step, not a huge one in performance, but we knew that going in. So, yes, for sure it doesn’t hurt and hopefully we can confirm in the next races that the pace is a little bit better too.
Quotes: Dieter Rencken
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Social media
Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:
We build them strong but, more importantly, we make sure every single one is safe. Crew all OK 🙏 👍 https://t.co/qKoe6Zh93h
— M-Sport Poland (@msportpoland) September 26, 2020
On my way home ✈️
Thanks to everyone for your messages 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/aZc1iMhRSs
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) September 27, 2020
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Links
More motor racing links of interest:
Jonathan Eddolls: "Pre-race we predicted starting inside the top 10 on the option compound would be a disadvantage, and we saw that for Pierre. He had to stop earlier than Daniil and he re-joined the race in traffic – at that time the tyres were good, but suddenly they hit a cliff. In hindsight, maybe stopping him a couple of laps earlier may have been an advantage, but in any case, I don’t think it would have changed the end result."
George Russell: "It was a really tough day in the office with a lot of mistakes from my side. I was struggling with the tyres and couldn’t get them working. I have been struggling with the starts a lot this year and I needed to step it up in terms of my confidence, and that’s what I did. I made a really good start, but I was forced off as turn two is so tight."
Guenther Steiner: "Romain (Grosjean) was not happy with his car, but I think that was broadcasted very well, so I don’t need to say more on that one."
Esteban Ocon: "When we put on the hards, the car was not the same. It was a bit tricky to drive and I was struggling with grip and balance and I just wasn’t as happy as I was on the softs. I was almost following Max (Verstappen) on the softs at the beginning of the race, so that’s something for us to review there."
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Comment of the day
Carlos Sainz Jnr’s complaint about Sochi’s turn two is justified, says @EuroBrun:
If he’d slowed down more for the chicane, he’d probably have ended up with someone hitting him up the backside.
I’ve always thought that the chicane was tight, but today just goes to show how badly designed it is:
- Completely miss the corner like Verstappen, and you can line it up nicely for a clean run through the chicane.
- Slightly misjudge the corner whole attempting to take it like Saniz and you are massively disadvantaged by trying to negate the chicane.
- Get squeezed out whilst battling fairly like Grosjean and you get the double whammy of losing out in the racing, then taking (or at least trying to take) the penalty at the tighter angle.
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be some sort of penalty or disadvantage to running wide, but just that it should be better managed than it is.
@EuroBrun
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On this day in F1
- 40 years ago today Alan Jones clinched the world championship after a controversial first-lap collision with title rival Nelson Piquet in Canada. Andrea de Cesaris made his F1 debut.
Duncan Idaho (@didaho)
28th September 2020, 1:22
The chicane is one thing but wall forming one side of the run off funnel – that Sainz clipped – is just not right. Sochi isn’t really a street circuit, shift it out a few metres.
Tommy C (@tommy-c)
28th September 2020, 3:59
Strip of gravel… surely problem solved?
Todfod (@todfod)
29th September 2020, 5:48
Grass would do the trick as well.
Jere (@jerejj)
28th September 2020, 8:00
@didaho It indeed isn’t as the track isn’t used by regular traffic for the rest of the year, so a permanent circuit that is rarely used for track action outside the annual GP weekend.
David Bondo
28th September 2020, 5:28
It was Sainz’s mistake he needed to slow down more. Need to punish people for missing the corner otherwise there’s no incentive to keep the car on the circuit.
bosyber (@bosyber)
28th September 2020, 6:09
Well yes it was his mistake to make sure, but it should not then be endangering him and others more than unsafely rejoining the track would, as it certainly did. The left side of the funnel being a wall isn’t ideal, also given the proximity to the track making debris from a hit a real issue,as we saw. Also in case of Grosjean being pushed off late in the corner and not being able to avoid hitting the foam which required a VC, not great.
In addition, you mention punishment, did you miss (the COTD mention of) Verstappen hardly being punished for missing the corner by, expertly, flashing straight through in the right angle?
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th September 2020, 8:02
Correct, I was really afraid Sainz was collected by other Cars when he bounched to the racing line.
sumedh
28th September 2020, 5:42
Just saw Vettel’s lap charts. He was clearly given an inferior strategy. His direct competitors – Giovanaazi and Magnussen pitted laps 16 and 19 but Vettel was made to stay out till lap 30 in order to slow down Leclerc’s direct competitors – Ocon, Ricciardo. Which he did very well and Leclerc did gain one place on Ocon due to that.
Looks like Ferrari has gotten used to making strategies work in the mid-field now!
ColdFly (@)
28th September 2020, 7:38
That’s a major step forward then; their strategies did not work anywhere in the past.
TheBullWhipper (@thebullwhipper)
28th September 2020, 6:31
Re-COTD
Just put gravel there! Problem solved…..
Patrick (@paeschli)
28th September 2020, 7:59
This
Jere (@jerejj)
28th September 2020, 8:00
I share the same views as the COTD.
F1oSaurus (@)
28th September 2020, 9:06
Indeed, Verstappen basically just cut a corner while Sainz should have slowed down a lot to make that gap.
sumedh
28th September 2020, 10:15
Super COTD! I just saw the race start replays with onboards of Verstappen and Sainz and what both of them did is exactly what the COTD said!
Verstappen basically decided to forget turn 2 and run through the run-off beforehand. He just had to lift off a bit to ensure he lines himself between the bollard and the wall correctly to avoid contact with either and got a good run back to the circuit.
Sainz does half of turn 2 and then goes into the run-off, at this point he has to take a slight left to stay on the left of the bollard and then take a right to avoid the wall. From his position, this left-right is now a proper slow and narrow chicane (almost like the Singapore Sling chicane – at the first Singapore grand prix – or Baku turns 8,9,10 part).
While Sainz was definitely at fault for his own crash, that he was massively disadvantaged before the crash needs to be fixed.
Balue (@balue)
28th September 2020, 20:06
Lol
But seriously, Grosjean’s complaining is getting really tiring. There comes a time when I just get fed up with drivers and wish they would retire, especially complainers like Barrichello and Massa, and now I feel it’s Romain’s turn to go. How the team has put up with this for so long in return for average performances is quite something.